“Leaves of three, let it be” is how the mnemonic goes, but poison ivy is also a tree-climbing vine with fuzzy brown aerial roots that contain the skin irritant urishol. Beware all forms of this trifoliate.

As a biology major, Dan Lane C’95 kept a spreadsheet of 140 bird species he sighted on campus over four years. He listed the cardinal as “common,” meaning he saw it daily. That birding experience served him well: Lane, now a research associate at LSU’s Museum of Natural Science, is credited with having discovered a new species of bird in Peru, the scarlet-banded barbet. Related Drew fact: Students in Professor Tammy Windfelder’s BIOL 162/Ornithology study bird anatomy and physiology and avian ecology, plus take campus bird censuses during the course.

Norse Druids imagined that deer—four stags, to be precise—fed off Yggdrasil, a massive tree of life symbolizing the world. The idea of deer as decimator still holds true in the Forest. In 2011, the arboretum and a significant portion of the Forest Preserve were fenced off to prevent deer from ravaging undergrowth, a threat to forest ecology. Related Drew fact: Associate Professor of Biology Tammy Windfelder and her students have studied mammal communities in the preserve to see how excluding deer affects the mix of animals there.

No, not the actor Redd Foxx, who played Fred Sanford on the ’70s sitcom Sanford and Son, but the species that may have been introduced into the colonies by European aristocrats for sporting purposes. An adult male fox is called a dog; a female, a vixen.

The larch is one of only three deciduous conifers in the United States, meaning it drops its needles each fall. The species name gives this away. Related Drew fact: In the course “Ecology and Evolution,” a quarter of all Drew first-year students conduct field labs, make observations and collect data in the Forest.

The phrase “nuptial pad” might bring to mind a luxurious honeymoon rental, but when it comes to toads it’s the best way to determine gender. On breeding males, look for darkened pads—used to grip the female during mating—above their thumbs.

Pop culture fact: Rostom Sipan “Ross” Bagdasarian, the Armenian-American singer-songwriter and actor who first voiced the chipmunks of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame, played the character who lived in the apartment across from Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock’s Rear Window.

The rabbit is featured in several children’s classics, including The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Runaway Bunny. Find more favorite children’s books recommended by Drew library staff. Related Drew fact: On April 30, 1978, Eddie Rabbitt performed on campus.

Carl Linneaus wasn’t quite sure how to classify the raccoon, but in 1758 settled on Ursus lotor: Ursus being bear, and lotor, meaning “I wash,” for the raccoon’s habit of seemingly dunking its food in water to wash it. Linneaus had a pet raccoon of his own named Sjupp, which Nature featured in 2007.

Benjamin Franklin was highly peeved the wild turkey hadn’t been picked as America’s national bird. In 1784, he wrote a letter to his daughter about the ill-advised choice of the bald eagle, believing that it was the turkey that had what it took to royally kick some British butt. Related Drew fact: The application for Sierra Club Magazine’s Cool Schools listing, on which Drew appeared in 2011, asked the following question: Has your school set aside part of its campus as natural habitat? Drew’s answer was yes, citing the forest preserve and the Zuck Arboretum, home to “a variety of wildlife, including geese, wild turkeys and white-tailed deer.”

Woodchucks, the largest member of the squirrel family, are also called groundhogs. They have inspired both an easily overlooked annual holiday and the ubiquitous tongue twister.

The pink or white “flowers” of the dogwood, New Jersey’s memorial tree, are actually not flowers at all, but rather bracts, or leaves that differ from foliage leaves. The flowers themselves are yellow and clustered in the center.

Chances are good you’ve never seen a Jack-in-the-pulpit flower. The hood-shaped “pulpit” is called the spathe. It covers the spadix, or the “jack,” i.e. minister. The flowers lie deep at the spadix’s base.

This shrub’s name, latin for “red tree,” comes from rhodo-, or red, and -dendron, for tree. Though a popular and gorgeous landscape plant, rhododendron is also a favorite foodstuff of deer. Related Drew fact: The fact that Drew has woodlands is no accident. In late 18th and early 19th century, much of Morris County was dotted with small and medium-sized farms. Wealthy landowners, like the Gibbons family who built Mead Hall, began to set up sprawling estates, and allowed portions of their property to revert to a natural tree-covered state.

 “No doubt if we search carefully, we may find toads, lizards, newts, salamanders, the common garter snake and perhaps the slender green snake—though very few snakes have ever been reported as having been seen in the Drew Forest. There are no suitable places for snakes to hibernate, such as rocky ledges.”—“Drew Forest Preserve,” a mid-20th–century self-guided nature booklet

The Zuck Arboretum’s two ponds were formed some 12,000 years ago when melting glaciers deposited large ice blocks, and subsequent property owners lined the resulting “punchbowls” with clay. The ponds harbor microscopic plankton, frogs, turtles, catfish and carp, which in turn attract predatory birds such as snowy egrets, herons and belted kingfishers.

Environmental studies and sustainability major Kyle O’Neill C’12 did an experimental study in 2010 comparing the inhabitants, painted turtle included, of the two ponds in the arboretum. He investigated the major differences in their food webs, from fish on down.

At Drew, the wood duck is in luck: Acorns are a staple in its diet. Related Drew fact: Drew has a professor of computer science and mathematics named Barry Burd.

Say the name Thomas Edison, and the light bulb and phonograph immediately come to mind. But for two years, from 1927­–29, Edison also experimented with using goldenrod as a domestic source of rubber. He grew thousands of plants at his labs in West Orange, N.J., and Florida, and discovered that a crossbred strain of goldenrod would, in fact, produce the substance. The invention of synthetic rubber during WWII nipped that—no pun intended—in the bud.

Neuroscience major Collyn Messier C’13 is studying crow cognition and problem-solving abilities in the Forest. His goal? To see if wild crows can open a puzzle box for a food reward. He’s also working at the nearby Raptor Trust with a captive raven named Jake.